The present invention relates to luggage such as garment carriers and, in particular, to an arrangement of pockets and hanger retainers therein.
Garment carrier type luggage generally comprises front and rear panels interconnected by a side panel, with the rear panel being opened and closed by means of a zipper. It is conventional to attach a hanger clamp to a top wall of the hanger for receiving the hook portions of garment hangers. Hanger clamps are known which comprise a pair of vertically spaced legs which clamp hanger hooks therebetween by means of pivotal movement of one or both of the legs. For example, in London U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,388 a lower leg pivots upwardly against a stationary leg. A latch interconnects the front ends of the legs to secure the legs closed. Resilient inserts in the legs include smooth clamping surfaces which elastically grip the hanger hooks therebetween.
In another known clamp, depicted herein in FIGS. 8 and 9, a pivotable upper leg 1 of a housing pivots downwardly against a lower leg 2 of the housing to clamp a hanger bracket between smooth surfaces of an elastic insert 3 disposed in the legs. An actuator 4 for pivoting the upper leg 1 also functions as a latch for securing the pivotal leg 1 shut. Cylindrical holes 5 formed in the elastic insert 3 acts to reduce the hardness of the material of the insert 3 and allow greater clamping force.
In each of the above-described clamps there exists the possibility of the latch becoming accidentally opened, whereupon the hanger hooks could slide forwardly along the smooth elastic surfaces and become dislodged from the clamp. The garments on the hangers could then become severely wrinkled.
Applicants are aware of a proposal to provide a hanger bracket with a pair of spaced-apart stationary legs, with elastic inserts in the legs to form a hanger-receiving channel therebetween. The channel-defining surfaces of the inserts would contain pointed serrations on the elastic surfaces, with the serrations on one surface being offset, or staggered, relative to the serrations on the other surface in order to require a zig-zag pattern of movement for the hanger hooks, thereby resisting accidental dislodgement of the hooks. However, such an arrangement would also require a zig-zag pattern of movement for the hanger hooks when they are being inserted, whereby the loading of hangers into the hanger retainer becomes difficult and time-consuming.
One aspect of the present invention deals with the need to avoid accidental dislodgement of garment hangers.
It has been previously proposed to provide a garment carrier with elastic pockets for receiving shoes. The shoe pockets have been attached directly to the front and rear panel, whereby the garment carrier has been rendered more bulky. It would be desirable to eliminate such a disadvantage resulting from the provision of shoe pockets.
It is conventional to provide garment carriers with triangular pockets at the two upper corners of the internal chamber of the garment carrier (e.g., see U.S. Pat. No. 3,175,658). It would be desirable to enable such pockets to be formed of thin, non-resiliently flexible material such as fabric or plastic while maintaining a triangular pocket-like configuration.